Internet Users Hbk - Chapter 3b: How to do Your Own Online Due Diligence Examples

Chapter 3b: How to do Your Own Online Due Diligence Examples

This is part b offering Examples as to How to and various Due Diligence Tools available to us online. Fraudulent ad and a couple of site evaluations are presented along with our Disclaimer

Objectives: Help our Internet Users Handbook readers and members of our Internet Scams Anonymous (ISA) Groups learn to recognize and avoid the various scams online while starting, growing or diversifying their business online. Doing their own due diligence is one of the means use to help look beyond the hype and to control emotional spending and to help our readers and members make informed decisions

Disclaimer: The internet as we now know it is largely unregulated (another subject), opinions are freely shared, and Claims of a scam are often unsupported. In our Internet Users Handbook, we define what we feel warrants a claim of a scam site or a scam owners new site for our readers and members of the Internet Scams Anonymous (ISA) Groups.

Our objective is to provide working definition of a scam and to provide various online tools to enable our readers and ISA members to do their own due diligence and to make an informed decision. We do this to help protect our readers and membership against potential financial loss.

As such, we can only render our opinions supported by our documentation. We are not the FBI or one of the various (international) Government Agencies that warn us and in some cases declare a site and/or it owners as scam/scammer,

We are neither a lawyer nor member of the courts which have the ultimate say on these matters.

Bear in mind, even legitimates sites run into partnership or ownership disputes, cash flow problems or have a bad business model that takes down their site. This does not make them a scam, even if you lose money.

The following are examples for your use to help explain the use of Online due diligence tools

3.6 Example DD: Deceptive Advertising, Fraud?

A classified ad posted on the internet

Network Marketing Scam

7 Things to Simply Avoid a Network Marketing Scam.

Free Info www.cashlinksmagic.com

So here we are trying to learn to recognize and trying to avoid scams, we find this ad. Let us check out this ad to see what they offer for advice. . Of course this ad will cause us to click the link to see what “7 things we can learn”.

However, when you click on the ad link www.cashlinksmagic.com; instead of getting information “7 Things to Simply Avoid a Network Marketing Scam. Free Info,” rather, you get a link to the Streamline Funnel System owned by Paul Birdsall

YES, we (you) might has taken a clue from the URL www.cashlinksmagic.com, but why not check it out. (Link is now inactive)

Listen to the video, his 100% money back guarantee and his disclaimer below

*INCOME DISCLAIMER: These income examples are representative of some of the most successful participants in the program. Some members may make little or NO MONEY AT ALL with this program. These claims are not a guarantee of your income, nor are they typical of average participants. Individual results will vary greatly and in accordance to your input, determination, hard work, and ability to follow directions. By using this website you are agreeing to our Legal Income Disclaimer

To be fair to Mr. Birdsall, this could have be an affiliate ad trying to market his or her Streamline Funnel System; however, we feel that it is highly unlikely that an affiliate would set up a domain www.cashlinksmagic.com, just to market one product. Since I am aware that Mr. Birdsall has many online sites; I believe this site is just another one of his domains. But he deserves further investigation rather than an assumption (do your due diligence, before you jump to conclusions) so here we go:

3.7 Domain Tools - CASHLINKSMAGIC.COM

We have the opportunity to contact procoach77 @ Hotmail to ask him about his ad. Note that he has not set his details to private. A Historical Report Preview ( )shows that he has 13 other registered domains Since the link is now dormant; it is currently owned by DomainName:cashlinksmagic.com

Organization:OverseeDomainManagement,LLC

Oversee Domain Management, LLC" was found in about 1,141,596 other domains If we (you) desire further investigation, then of course we could do a Google search for both Ryan and procoach77.. Other than the deceptive ad, we have not found any relationship or association with Mr Birdsall; except that they are both from Canada.

Back to the Ad and link

The Video in this link is not offering and tips about scams; it is only marketing The Streamline Funnel System; and the free info is about their system.

Is This Fraud? In Our Opinion - Yes

Yes, I am not a lawyer, but what happen to truth in advertising? I was looking for "7 Things to Simply Avoid a Network Marketing Scam. Free Info,” but I was linked to an ad for the Streamline Funnel System. So we have regulators and more regulators for offline businesses, but who is regulating the online businesses.

3.8 Is the Streamline Funnel System A Scam?

Offers a 7 Day Double Your Money Back Guarantee ($ 20.00). There is also a monthly charge of $ 39.96, to pay for the 10,000 leads that you never see and do not own. Since SFS uses a credit card gateway instead of PayPal, Alert Pay or others, I have to find the credit card and then file a dispute with them. This all leads to another problem, the debit for many of these sites is usually paid to some obscure name, which makes it difficult to link back to either the site or the owner. The only key is $ 39.96.

TIP: If the payment is to be made to someone unrelated to the transaction with no tieback to the actual system. Then that site is a good candidate for you to back out of and pass. Print a copy of all site data and take a copy of your receipt

In the past, I have tried to verify other payments and have written to the email address of the recipient, which is usually available from PayPal and such, but, of course in most cases, I didn’t get a response.

It has been nearly 2.5 months since I paid for my site. According to him, I should have made money off my link even though the site’s back office does not work, but I have not verified that the signup page even works. According to the Video; without lifting a finger, I or anybody should earn money within 7-21 days

His support staffs have not responded to my “Urgent” support ticket and 4 follow ups” All emails from anyone related are referred as “non-reply” and they send you back to the same support ticket system

So what good is this Guarantee? Who, Where and How to collect? Instead of a 1-800 number or International calling number, he offers a 1-206 number. You can leave a message because the office seems closed even when you adjust for a time zone difference. No one had returned my call or responded to my message

How come these big boys can’t afford to offer service and support, why a 1-206 number and not a 1-800 or an international number?

100% Autopilot: do nothing and earn $ 1,000 to $ 10,000 per month. Why have forums for us to join, if the members cannot post a reply? Why did I not get a Welcome Email with id and password is, if you need help contact? An now that I have seen this Ad, I am even more concerned about my $39.96 per month

TIP: From this Example, I want you to see that we simply cannot say, “This is a Scam or that is a Rip-Off” without some kind of supporting evidence. You need to document the problems and the actions that you have taken. Follow this example to make your point to the Group. With regard to the Streamline Funnel System; I believe that we have identified the scam, met the criteria, and have given you sufficient evidence of a Scam

So Is Streamline Funnel System A Scam? In our opinion - Yes

3.9 Example DD: Gorilla Millions

Wow, I am embarrassed. I tried to load the site, was going to walk you through the home page and other pages to build my case. However, I got the following message

GM Is Currently Being Moved To a New Server: GM Management

It is not clear from the message whether they had to change ISP for Spamming, which is a possibility, or just what kind of problem they are having

From what I know about computer systems with my background and experience: anyone can upgrade their internal servers, have a redundant capability to keep them online, and bring in the new server online, uninterrupted. But most of these site use external servers, so we need to check further.

Google Search- GorillaMillions

www.gorillamillions.com = 58,200 pages

Gorillamillions Scam = 3,760,000 pages

GorillaMillions Rip-off = 94 pages

Gorilla Millions Rip-off = 65,300 pages

Again if you scan the headlines, you will see that some pages take the phase, some the individual words; regardless, some pages will show up in one search and not the other.

GorillaMillions Fraud = 7,910 pages

Gorilla Millions Fraud = 5,500,300 pages

While the Google Search has already shown some problems, let us continue our discussion here for purposes of demonstration

WhoIs: OPPS - GorillaMillions vs WWW.GorillaMillions

My FIRST Whois search for the Domain Name: gorillamilions.com turned to be a site owned by a fellow from Czech Republic – Wrong. I am reminded that Learning never stops, if you open your mind to it

My SECOND Whois search with the correct address of www.gorillamillions.com gave us better results. Note the “www” in front of the name. TIP: Double check the Site Address

So now we have the right one and the owner is not hiding. The details are not set to private; but whether they are real or not, I have no idea.

What else we can learn about this site and owners:

DomainTools - WWW.GorillaMillions

3.10 IS GorillaMillions A Scam?

This site offered $1,950 per month for doing nothing again. Get started for $.25 and then $19.95 per month. It offers a Fast Start bonus, and other bonuses that included a loyalty bonus after you have been with them for a year. So I sucked in and had been with them for over a year. All though this was my first “do nothing” make money site, I always advertise, so I could make sure I earned the Fast Start Bonus, but I have received no leads or a downline for over a year.

To increase my chances of success and the Fast Start Bonus, I enrolled three more PAID family members – who I knew they would “do nothing”, but if they got paid – great!

Support

After some time, I contacted Support to query, why I had not received any payments, including My Fast Start Bonus for signing up three paid members. The site was recording payouts, but I was not receiving anything.

No Reply

Further, since no payments or bonuses were credited to my account, I had nothing I could withdraw until after a year, when Loyalty Bonuses were credited to me and my other downline members. A payment request was made for all of us to withdraw our Loyalty Bonus

No Payments Were Received

I send emails were sent to support and asked why no payments of any kind were received?

No Reply. In fact we never heard for anybody UNTIL, I cancelled all accounts.

Then I got an immediate messages from support – they must have an auto responder tied to their cancel my account button.

From:

Date: Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 8:14 AM

Subject: Cancellation Form Receipt GorillaMillions

To:

Thank you for your recent patronage with GorillaMillions and we are sorry to learn that your membership with us was not a benefit to you.

Important Info about Member Cancellations

This Receipt confirms that you have CANCELED your GorillaMillions membership out from our System. This will cancel your membership in our program ONLY. You must log into your payment processor to cancel your subscription to CompanyExpress/Bigorilla.

Also your deactivation from GorillaMillions means, you lose your access to your downline and any bonuses. If you ARE a PAYING member, if you do not do as suggested above, it's not our obligation to refund any payments you make in error to us. So please be responsible for your own actions and take care of it accordingly.

As you agreed in our terms, there are no chargebacks allowed and chargebacks will be pursued and claims filed to the full extent that the law provides. It is better that you cancel your own subscription!

If you need HELP, please log into HELP and ask us to assist you! We are happy to help you cancel your sub and payment if you need help!

The Site ID you cancelled wasxx, Phone Number xx and the e-mail associated with that membership was:

You stated the following as your reason for cancelling with us:

“You haven’t responded to my support questions, nor have you paid me”

Their Response

Have you discovered ALL the Features of GorillaMillions?, You Miss Out On Massive Growth In GorillaMillions's True Perpetual Powerline, Your Bonuses Are Nullified & Your Team Rolls Up To Next Active Member, Your Guaranteed Income From Up To Five Profit Pools Is Sadly Forfeited.

Ownership of a GorillaMillions Web Property Is Completely Deactivated.

100% Automated System Does The Selling - All You Do Is Show And Tell!

Unique Opportunity In Any Profit Market - You Forfeit And We Part Ways.

Have you asked for help from GorillaMillions?

Go to http://www.gorillamillions.com/support/ and allow us to assist you. Thank you again for your participation in GorillaMillions

Warmest Regards,

GorillaMillions Customer Support Team

How Sweet – I thought

How Sweet, this being my first and only reply from GorrilaMillions in over a year. Of course, I will miss all those features and guarantees that I never got in the first place.

However, it does not end there, because my payments are still being cashed by GM for each of the 4 accounts. The Credit Card Company feels the dispute is between GM and us and needs a paper trail to enter a credit. We have again asked for support from GM, but as usual

Again No Reply

This reminds of my first health club membership and the never ending payment processor. The meter for the GM Scam is over $1500 and the meter is still running.

There are just two examples that have been shown to show some process and documentation of establishing a claim of a scam. As Quoted Earlier “One man’s claim of a scam, may be another’s bonanza”. Do your own due diligence before you claim or lay blame

IS or Was GorillaMillions A Scam? In our opinion - yes

TIP: Always read the FAQs and Terms of Service, after you have done your own Due Diligence